Thursday

Last night was a productive night. Haven't had one of those during the work week in some time. I got home from work around 6:00 pm. I was able to stop at the pharmacy, walk both dogs, do dishes (which included hand washing), 2 loads of laundry (folded and put away), dinner made, blog posts made and kitchen floor cleaned all before 9:00 pm. This may not seem like a lot but it is for me. I like to just veg or go out to dinner after a day of working. I'm thinking the latte at 3:30 pm yesterday may have played a roll in my productivity Wednesday night;)

This morning was a cold one. So cold I had to dig out my hat and gloves before leaving the house. I ran out of my Awake tea so I was forced to try a new flavor. I decided on Tazo Passion tea. The Passion tea smelled wonderful and looked really pretty but the flavor is too sweet for me. Plus upon closer inspection I discovered no caffeine is in this choice of beverage which means this is not a good choice for morning consumption;)

Breakfast was an Odwalla sweet & salty almond chewy nut bar. This bar contains crunchy almonds and hearty oats and is fantastic!!! Loved the chewy nutty flavors!

Take a look at the nuts in this bar (this sentence made me giggle for some reason).

During my lunch break I had to go get my husband's watch battery replaced so while I was out I decided to get take-out from a new place. Kramer's Healthy Foods (menu) is not only a health food store but restaurant too. This store is FULL of healthy items from organic beauty supplies, books and exercise tapes to an organic grocery store. The store also has vitamins, supplements and a bunch of different bars. This is a rare and great find in the Chicago loop!

I ventured up to the loft to place my lunch order. The worker's were very friendly and knowledgeable about the food they offered. I decided on the Cuban Black Bean soup and Kramer's salad.

The soup was really good and filling. Tons of black beans and carrots, both are items I like. I would have liked the soup to have a little spice to it, so next time I will have to experiment with all the spices they had available at the order counter.

The salad was very fresh. It had marinated asparagus, tomato's, onion, cucumbers & feta cheese served over a spring mix. I opted to have no cheese and remove the tomato's. This was a great salad!

I'm so bummed I didn't get any pictures of Kramer's but it will give me an excuse to go back! As if I need an excuse, I loved my meal and am planning my next visit as I type this!

Around 4:00 pm my husband stopped by and asked if I was interested in Starbucks. No need to ever ask me that question, I'm always interested in Starbucks. We walked over to the local shop and I ordered a tall no foam skinny vanilla latte. Perfection!

Isn't it cute :) I normally order a venti or grande but since it is late in the day I decided to downsize.

Oh - Chicago had it's first snow flurry of the year! How exciting!

Holiday Picture - December 2, 2009

I know I posted the first picture a couple days ago but it is to pretty to not have it's own post.

Veggies and Strange Food Combo's

Dinner was a new experience for me. I attempted to roast brussel sprouts. They don't look to great but they tasted fantastic. I will be making these again in the very near future.

Here is a closer look at my slightly burnt dinner.

After my brussel sprout experience my husband poured me a glass of white wine.

We bought this wine on a trip to Michigan. It comes from the Karma Vista winery. All you people in Michigan or close by should totally go on a Michigan wine tour. A lot of hidden gems in the state.

I didn't have many brussel sprouts so I was still hungry. We really don't have much food in the house so I had to search for something to eat. I decided on corn, why not?

I've been known to eat some pretty strange food combinations. This might gross a lot of you out but I really like my corn with ketchup.

I always thought I was alone in this food combo but I have met a couple others who prefer corn with a touch of ketchup ;)

Question:

What strange food combo's do you have?

Wednesday - a bit of everything

I woke up this morning feeling not hungry at all. Probably has something to do with all that pasta I had last night. I just love a big plate of pasta, yum!

I decided to have a liquid breakfast, OJ. Maybe this will help we fight off this cough, that would be great.

Around 11:00 am I felt like having something sweet so I had a couple Twizzler Nibs. I don't really like Twizzlers but I do like these.

By the time lunch rolled around I was hungry. I started off with some Pasta Fagoli soup. It was okay, I don't like tomato's in my soups and this had some in it. But I was crafty and picked around those pesky tomato's.

I needed something else so I had 3 of these roasted potatoes. They were very small.

The clock hit 3:30 pm and my head hit the desk. I was so tired and in desperate need of caffeine. I chatted up my husband and he took me to get a Starbucks. I strayed away from my usual order and got a skinny peppermint mocha latte.

It was very tasty, like a dessert. However, I do believe they forgot to make it skinny because I noticed some chocolate floating on the top of my drink :( Oh well, it is in my belly now!

Holiday Picture - December 1, 2009

The city of Chicago has so many great holiday decorations. I've decided I'm going to share one holiday picture a day until the end of December.

Today's picture was taken inside the state street Macy's.

This is such a great building. So much history.

Question:

How does the town you live in decorate for the holiday's?

Wedding Photos and Cocktails

After work my husband and I grabbed a drink at a cute little restaurant. I ordered a kettle one cosmo:

Once we finished our drinks we walked over to the photography studio to pick up our wedding proofs. We were married the beginning of October so I was very excited to get my hands on these babies! Now all we have to do is narrow down 700 pictures to 40, this may take some time.

After the photography appointment we went to a little Italian restaurant, Tutto Italiano Ristorante. The place was very cute. We ate inside an old rail car!

Outside view:

Inside view:

Our table (don't mind the pile of coats, like I said, it was cold in Chicago today):

I ordered pasta marinara with meatballs. The meatballs were VERY good!

Let's take a closer look:

I just love Italian food!

Question:

What is your favorite Italian dish?

My favorite is simply spaghetti and marinara sauce.

Brrrr....It is cold!

This morning it was freezing outside. I really need to go to the storage locker and switch out my summer clothes for winter clothes, it is December, it is time for the down winter coat.

I froze my tush off while waiting for the bus this morning. Once I got to work I got some hot oatmeal to warm me up. I topped my oats with granola, coconut and peanut butter. Wasn't very hungry so I only ate half of it.

I was also craving a soda so I filled up on my favorite, Dr. Pepper.

Lunch time hit and I was STILL COLD! My company needs to turn the heat up. I picked up some Chicken Barley soup in hopes that I could jump start a heat flash.

Wasn't sure if the soup would be filling enough so I picked up a side of Penna pasta salad. The pasta salad consisted of black olives, red peppers, red onion, peas and of course pasta.

A couple hours after lunch I go hungry, okay maybe not hungry but bored. I know I shouldn't eat while bored but I had a bag of Stacy's Parmesan Garlic & Herb pita chips sitting on my desk and calling my name.

So good, and not *that* bad for me.

This was the first time I've had this brand of pita chips and I have to say they were great! Crunchy, salty and a nice garlic flavor. What more could this girl ask for?!?